Friday, August 26, 2005

Howler

Somerby is dead-on today.

Hope this makes it into the history books. Perhaps something called "How a Moron Got to the White House: George W. Bush and the Subsequent Staining of the American Soul."

Oppose, object, dissent

Public acknowledgment of the feds going after library records.

Administration officials have repeatedly emphasized that they have no interest in investigating the reading habits of law-abiding Americans.

Yes, well that's certainly nice to hear. And perhaps this administration in its infinite wisdom will abide by that standard.

I will have to willfully forget that this administration is actually killing innocent foreigners, in order to believe that they will abide by that standard.

But suppose for a minute that the next administration does not meet that standard. Say, some extremely religious types decide that I shouldn't be reading Dr. fucking Suess, because he was far too much of a secular humanist.

Oppose, object, dissent.

ACLU web-site

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Misdirection

Elisabeth Bumiller falls for Bush's head fake:

The president said withdrawing troops now - as Ms. Sheehan advocates - would "only embolden the terrorists and create a staging ground to launch more attacks against America and free nations."

Here is Cindy Sheehan's primary goal:

"I want one answer: What is the "noble cause" MY son died for."

Has she said that she wants the troops home? Yup. Is that the top thing that she is looking for? Nope.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Truth-tellers will be dealt with appopriately

Profiling Report Leads to a Demotion

Finally! Someone in the Bubble Boy administration is going to be held to account for something!

Oh, wait.

But the references in the draft to higher rates of searches and use of force for blacks and Hispanics were crossed out by hand, with a notation in the margin that read, "Do we need this?" A note affixed to the edited draft, which the officials said was written by Ms. Henke, read "Make the changes," and it was signed "Tracy." That led to a fierce dispute after Mr. Greenfeld refused to delete the references, officials said.

How silly of me - incompetence leads to promotion, moral and ethical stands lead to demotion.

Thank goodness the government is being run like a business!

Show your work

How does Bush get away with statements such as these?

"She expressed her opinion," Mr. Bush said at the Tamarack Resort, near Donnelly, Idaho, about 70 miles north of Boise. "I disagree with it. I think immediate withdrawal from Iraq would be a mistake. I think those who advocate immediate withdrawal from not only Iraq but the Middle East are advocating a policy that would weaken the United States."

Link

This wouldn't be good enough for a high school two-page paper. Picture the red-inked comment: "You need to support this thesis. In what ways would this make America weaker?"

I don't understand how anyone, and especially political reporters, can take him seriously. His best characteristic seems to be his ability to do PR, but an American president needs to do a bit better than that.

Show your work, Bubble Boy.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

More bad apples

Some more bad apples, I guess.

You know, just like how the grunts at Abu Ghraib were "just a few bad apples" and we are supposed to believe that they were not acting on orders. Nothing to see here, just a few bad apples.

Former KBR Worker Admits to Fraud in Iraq

Moral values

Quite the man of God, that Pat Robertson:

Televangelist Calls for Assassination of Chavez

WWJA: Who Would Jesus Assassinate?

Update: Credit to Media Matters and Atrios, apparently.